Question

Suppose the mean infectious period for a certain disease is 37 days. What is the removal rate if time steps of 1 day are used? What is the removal rate is time steps of 1 week are used?

Answer 1

Incubation period is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical, or radiation, and when symptoms and signs are first apparent. In a typical infectious disease, incubation period signifies the period taken by the multiplying organism to reach a threshold necessary to produce symptoms in the host. The transmission rate of many acute infectious diseases varies significantly in time, but the underlying mechanisms are usually uncertain. They may include seasonal changes in the environment, contact rate, immune system response, etc. The transmission rate has been thought difficult to measure directly. Steps of 1 day or  1 week will not make any difference in removal rate, because here the infection period of this disease is 37 days. So during this 37 days the host can spread this disease. Hence it is advised isolation for a period for 37 days.